How Insight Cosmetics Focuses on Customer Retention

The beauty industry in India is still to reach its full potential. India is way behind most mature markets across the world like Japan, Korea, and the USA in terms of the consumption of beauty products. Therefore, the industry, when compared with the scope of its population, is highly premature.

However, the demand for products that are better suited for the Indian skin types and the Indian climate is high. As a result, the beauty industry is growing at a good rate year-on-year, making cosmetics and beauty the next sector to see a boom in India.

One such brand that is contributing to the growth of the beauty and cosmetics industry is Insight Cosmetics.

Dinesh Jain, Founder, and Chairman, Insight Cosmetics, said, “In the year 2012, we started Insight Cosmetics, a brand that focuses on delivering high-quality products. Our target audience wanted to experiment with more than just basic makeup. They were open to trying new, fresher makeup products as long as they were confident the quality was maintained and the cost was affordable. The USP of our brand is that we ensure our products are of the highest quality while being available to consumers at affordable rates.”

“Our best selling categories would be the range of primers we have. We are listed amongst the top 5 primers in the country. Our range of nail polishes, lipsticks, and concealers also has a fair market share in the Indian market. The average selling point of our products is Rs 150 to 170,” he added.

“The pandemic and compulsion to wear a mask has increased the demand for non-transfer lipstick shades. We have also seen an increase in demand for eye makeup since the start of the pandemic. For a couple of months after the restrictions were raised, the retailers ordered only the essential makeup products, like kajal and eyeliners. So, our inventory saw a quick sale in the fast-moving essential makeup products,” he stated.

Focusing on Customer Retention

Customer retention is essential to grow sales and build the brand name of any business.

“We are focused on updating our software to analyze the data collected at the stores in greater depth. We believe that retaining a customer takes more effort than getting that first sale, and hence we focus a lot on client retention and brand loyal clients. Our new software will help us achieve better insight into the shopping habits of our customer database,” he remarked.

“Our own website sees a repeat client base, with a good growth rate month on month. In addition, we have seen good growth in our direct customer base. As a result, our cost of acquiring new customers has been reduced drastically since we get many referrals and repeat clients. As a result, our focus has been more on customer retention, and we are actively working towards ensuring our customers stay loyal to our brand,” Jain noted.

Embedding Digital Innovations

Insight Cosmetics’ website and partner dashboard give it live updates regarding sales, trending products, and products performing below expectations. 

“Our customized ERP gives us direct reports, allowing us to focus on the problem areas. In addition, our offline partners give us instant updates on inventory and issues, if any, as and when they arise. We have sales automation software that gives us well on ground reports,” he asserted.

“Going ahead, we are working on different ways to track and study the sales reports across all our sales channels. We are also researching to integrate artificial intelligence into our website to understand customer needs in a better way. With all these systems in place, we know the problem areas as soon as they arise and actively improve our productivity,” Jain further informed.

Shift from Offline to Online

There is a significant shift from offline to online, which resulted in faster changes in makeup trends and looks.

“We already had an online presence across multiple platforms and sites and our own brand website. During the pandemic, we just focused more on being more visible online. Our online sales took sudden growth during the pandemic,” Jain stated.

Online trends tend to change every quarter instead of a seasonal or yearly change compared to the offline market.